I wanted to share my experience with everyone.
I love dogs and rescue them. I currently have 5 dogs...they are my babies.
I recently rescued a very sick little 2lb puppy from the local shelter (which is a complete mess) and nursed her back to health. She is now 8 lbs and thriving.
I am self employed and work from my home so I am with my dogs all day everyday. I rarely leave for more than an hour. I do have a husband and two daughters living at home, but my dogs are my babies and I take care them 100% and the rest of the family enjoys playing with them but of course I am their caretaker and I am the one they come by when they are not feeling well.
I live in the New Orleans area and last Tuesday was Mardi Gras day. My husband and I had the day off together and my daughters went off with their friends. It was a great day and my husband cut the grass and made the yard look beautiful. In doing so, he forgot to put a little piece of cement back by the gate that was just a precaution for all dogs. I never trust any animal to stay in a yard if there is just a spot they can dig or get out of.
Needless to say the puppy got out that night in the middle of the night. When I woke on Wednesday morning at 6am all of them, except for the puppy, was there to greet me in the living room (they have a doggy door to go in and out when they need to because I have two labs, one who is incontinent and uses the door frequently throughout the night).
I immediately went outside and saw that little hole under the fence and knew she had escaped.
I woke everyone in the house with a piercing scream and my husband jumped out the bed. He went to a neighbor and borrowed a bicycle. I was walking the neighborhood calling for her and called in the extra forces (my mom and step dad). We all took separate vehicles and began searching. My husband knew he should not come back without her. My daughters printed up 100 flyers, my mom went to the store and created neon colored posters and we pasted her picture to it. Everyone had a job.
Throughout the day we covered miles and miles of a very populated area. We stopped every vehicle, jogger, US mail carrier, FED EX truck and UPS truck. And since this was the day after Mardi Gras all the kids were out of school so as soon as we saw children out and riding their bikes we gave them flyers and asked for their assistance and offered a REWARD!!!
I also prayed to St Anthony (the saint for lost things and missing persons). I am not religious in any way (ashamed to say) but very spiritual. I prayed that prayer all day and night.
Finally the next day I had been out in a field, on the levee and in a neighborhood where someone said they had spotted her. We received alot of phone calls but each turned out not to be our baby.
So I am exhausted and returned home to cry and pray before going back out again. I got a call from a wonderful woman who said she found my dog. I told her that she had to give me more info other than that because I could not handle another heartbreak. She said "Well, I am reading your cell number on her collar" - that's when I knew it was my baby.
This is the reason I am writing on this site. I ordered the collars that you could have your info stitched onto the fabric. The lady told me the dog was in her shed, scared and would not allow them to get close to her. She was very hungry by this time (she had been missing for about 36 hrs and it was very cold here) that she put some food out enough that she would put her head out to see her collar. If she had to read a tag, she doesn't think she could have but because her collar had my cell # stitched on it she called me without trying to pull her out the shed. I told her to call her name "Tini" and when she said it she started laughing because my baby was licking her face and jumping on her lap. I immediately went to her home just 6 blocks away and picked her up. I went to the bank and brought her back $200. Amazing - she never saw not one sign or flyer that we had posted or handed out. So she was not expecting a reward. It went to pay for her 2 yr old daughter's birthday party.
My point is this: the collars work from a distance. I have them on all my dogs and I truly believed it saved her life.
Thanks for reading this long post.
Jodi LaBorde
PS - my husband was allowed back in the house Wed night only because at 9:30 PM while on the bicycle with a flash light he was stopped by 4 police who thought he had a gun in his waist band. He was covered in mud and grass because they pushed him to the ground. I felt sorry for my husband and allowed him to sleep on the sofa so he could get a few hours of sleep and start searching again the next morning. He was happy to hear when I received the phone call from my angel telling me she found my baby the next day because then he was allowed back in the bedroom. I, of course, slept with my little baby for the next three nights because I did not want her out of my sight.
We did fix the gate and there is no way anyone is getting in or out of our Fort Knox.